“circleWhat do you do when you are terminally ill? When you only have a certain amount of time left? ” These are the questions that give rise to this new adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III. In the film, the main character, like the actor who plays him, has motor neurone disease (MND) and uses a wheelchair.
I speak to the actor, Michael Patrick, and the play's director, Oisin Carney, during a break from rehearsals at Belfast's Lyric Theater ahead of opening night. For the pair who wrote the adaptation together, the answers to these core questions influence the play as a whole. “In Richard's case, he's trying to be king,” Patrick says.
The story of how he does it through murder, deception, and betrayal is one of the play's most compelling stories. Because the work is so well known, Carney and Patrick reimagined it as a unique work, while also focusing on its defining features, such as Machiavellian intrigue, intrigue, and Richard's status as the archetypal antihero. was able to maintain its distinctive characteristics. “It was like, 'What's important to the story? What is the story that exists in Richard III that we want to tell?'” Patrick says. He and Carney decided they wanted to explore the role that disability itself plays in the play and how it shapes Richard's character.
Somewhat surprisingly, given that Richard is one of the few clearly disabled characters in the theatrical canon (he is traditionally depicted hunched over), This is the first time that Richard is played by an actor who uses a wheelchair. Although Patrick has only recently become a wheelchair user, he uses this experience to interpret his character. “I don't know if this play has changed my understanding,” he says, adding: No two versions of the disorder are the same. I have only been a wheelchair user for about a year, but my disease is progressive. This is very different from someone who has to spend most of their life in a wheelchair or whose condition is mostly stable. Anyone who stars in Shakespeare's works is always looking for a unique take on their characters, and having a recent disability helped me find the version of the character I wanted to portray. ”
In fact, it was Patrick's recent MND diagnosis that prompted the play to take shape. When he shared the news about his health on Instagram last July, he joked that “my limp is real right now,” hence the list of roles that would be perfect for him. presented. One was Richard (another tongue-in-cheek suggestion was Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol). Patrick freely admits that he didn't expect the job to come through social media, but later explained. Instagram post“Jimmy Fay from Lyric messaged me right away and asked if I was serious about doing Richard III. I got together with Oisin, my long-time creative partner, and we came up with a concept and then Lyric Thankfully, Jimmy liked our idea and gave us the slot.'' Patrick's wish came true after his diagnosis.
Patrick and Carney have worked together for many years, including on several theatrical projects and an adaptation of their joint script My Left Nut for BBC Three. “We've always wanted to do Shakespeare together,” Patrick says. “He's also a very good friend. He was a groomsman at my wedding.” When it came to this work, it was important to Richard that “there was no one I could trust more.”
Patrick and Carney are acutely aware of their responsibility to get this moment right, to accurately portray his disability, and to make Richard a more well-rounded character than he's ever been. “There's a tradition of showing Richard as this kind of evil villain,” Patrick says. “And his villainy seems to be expressed by the fact that he's in a wheelchair or disabled. He does terrible things, but not because he's in a wheelchair. I did it by choice. It's a little more interesting and dramatic.”
Some of the changes were small, but important to making this version of the story feel authentic. “In the original text, Richard was born with a disability,” Patrick says. That is, you just need to tweak certain words. In his opening speech, he always says, “Before I was born, I was sent into this living world, deformed and unfinished.” We changed it to “transformed, perfected, and sent out of this breathing world before my time.” It's a small thing like that, but I'm now able to change the angle of my work. ”
They were acutely aware of how disability was portrayed and the stereotypes they wanted to avoid, and were worried that audiences would interpret the 'tragedy' to mean Richard's disability. Is it? “It's a tragedy because everyone dies,” Patrick says with a laugh. But he understands the problem. “It's less about disability being a tragedy and more about people's reactions to disability being a tragedy, if that makes sense.” Because in an ideal world, Richard would be in a wheelchair. However, you can do whatever you want. ”
Carney says the script was written to emphasize that the whole tragedy was Richard's own doing. “I always interpret a tragedy as someone being unable to change and that leading to that person's death. In Richard's case, he's attached to the crown and he's obsessed with it. He could have made other choices, and he could have kept all of his brothers alive, and he could have had a really, really good life. He chooses to kill, and that choice leads him to loneliness. It's not just that he has a disability. It's also the decisions that those in power, love or hate, make. It's also about choice.”
The script's choices and emphasis on deliberate action are reflected in Patrick and Carney's decision to produce the play in the most accessible and inclusive manner. Patrick and Zach Ford-Williams use wheelchairs full-time, while Paula Clarke, who plays Tyrell, is deaf and communicates in sign language.
The entire cast and crew “had to find new ways to work together, including how to make sure Paula understood my instructions. But it just leads to really rich conversations about the piece. ” says Patrick. Because obviously I can talk about the annoyance of being in a wheelchair now, but Zach can bring up something that happened when he was a kid, when he was a student. It's great to get all these different perspectives. It's really fun but also different. I think anytime you're in a room with people with different life experiences, it's always helpful and always brings something new to the table. ”
It's still rare to see productions starring actors with multiple disabilities, and the pair believe Lyric has done the job of making that possible. As the theater building is relatively new, it is already easily accessible, and Patrick, Ford Williams and Clark have been invited to provide suggestions for improvements. According to Patrick and Carney, a proactive approach to making things wrong has brought about change. Carney said the biggest barrier is often funding. It actually costs more to provide accommodations for actors with disabilities. But don't use that as an excuse.
“Up until now, it has probably been too easy to say it's too expensive. We need theater that reflects society.” They decided to make it an initiative and used the funds raised to pay for a BSL interpreter for Clark and accessible accommodation for Ford Williams. While this was a great way to go, Mr Carney said there needed to be more funding for the arts, with much of it going to “encouraging the employment of actors and musicians and people who perhaps didn't have the talent for the job.” he said. It is considered too expensive. Patrick says money is important, but attitudes also need to change. He argues that casting directors should be more proactive in placing actors with disabilities in roles not specifically written for them. “There's no reason why I can't play Benedick.” [in Much Ado About Nothing]” he says, as if he is challenging the industry to make it happen. He admits that before he became a wheelchair user, he never thought about the lack of opportunities given to actors with disabilities. For me, it’s not about being ‘locked in’ to a particular role,” he points out. “There's a lack of roles across the industry. I'm an actor. I want to work. It's very difficult to get cast without putting up another barrier.”
Carney and Patrick believe change is on the horizon (they point to the success of Little Big Things, a musical about being disabled, in London's West End) . But at the end of the day, theater is a business, Carney says, and “the best way to achieve accessibility and diversity on stage is for audiences to support it.” We hope Belfast theatergoers will do just that and enjoy this smart and powerful retelling of Richard III. Perhaps the theater industry could do better with a play about one man's terrible choices.
The Tragedy of Richard III will run at Belfast's Lyric Theater from October 12th to November 10th..
